Five months after leaving T-Mobile, I still have no regrets

For a decade I was with T-Mobile, and then last year I transferred my line — as well as members of my family — to one of the prepaid options. Five months later, I don’t miss it. The bill is lower, the day-to-day experience is slicker, and the service has been more reliable than I was anticipating.

Why I switched, and what I expected from a prepaid plan

Like other longtime customers, I was tired of plan creep and what appeared to be arbitrary rules about discounts and billing. The tipping point was a combination of increasing plan costs, autopay requirements that privileged bank drafts over credit cards, and the feeling that “loyalty” wasn’t translating into anything especially valuable.

I was way ahead of the downgrade with an MVNO. The conventional wisdom is that you’ll experience deprioritization at times of congestion, slower 5G, and customer-service runaround. None of that has mattered in my day-to-day use.

Real-world coverage and performance in everyday use

On paper, T-Mobile wins in a number of national 5G speed and availability reports. Ookla and Opensignal consistently have T-Mobile in or near the top for median 5G download speeds and time on 5G, with Verizon and AT&T trading wins based on reliability and consistency. Those are useful guideposts — but what you experience will depend on where you live, work, and travel.

My experience on Verizon’s network via a prepaid brand, in practice, has been uneventful, and not in a bad way. Trips to the grocery store, errands downtown, weekend cruises in the country, and detours into rural stretches all did what they were asked. I didn’t chase speed-test glory; I just found that maps loaded quickly, music streamed without buffering, and group texts arrived on time. That’s what matters.

Deprioritization can occur with any MVNO when the primary carrier has a tower that is overcrowded. I did notice a few slowdowns entering crowded stadium lots, but these were relatively brief — minutes, not hours. Beyond those hotspots, connectivity seemed just as decent as on my old plan.

No more friction for eSIM swaps when changing phones

I switch phones frequently, and eSIM used to be the part I hated. With my old carrier, switching an eSIM sometimes involved a chat with support, identity verification, and waiting for a manual reset. Now it’s self-serve on the app. I log in, I tap to transfer, and a few minutes later I am live on iOS or Android.

That follows the shift in the industry. The GSMA’s “Global Interoperability and Compliance of eSIM Devices” has also observed wider adoption across carriers and device vendors, particularly with high-end phones no longer using physical SIM cards. The tech has finally lived up to the promise — fast, secure, app-based provisioning with no store visits.

The bill that made the choice simple and saved real money

Price was not the only reason I left, but it is most easily quantifiable. Our five-line account went down by about a third from what we used to pay T-Mobile in total. That’s actual money you’ll save each month — with no need to closely monitor data use or sacrifice the way you currently use your device.

Outside of the headline price, the billing process got better. I can pay with a rewards credit card instead of getting directed toward a checking account pull because that’s the only way to keep an autopay discount — which had irked a lot of customers when the large carriers changed their terms. Clearer itemization and fewer surprise add-ons made it easier for me to stop policing the bill.

Hotspot allowances are more generous than what I had before, so I feel fine about tethering my laptop if Wi‑Fi goes out. Wearable support is simple and international day passes are also predictable, which comes into play for the rapid cross-border visitor.

What I lost and why it has not mattered in daily life

Big carriers score with add-ons and deals. T-Mobile’s discounted streaming options and its weekly freebie program are genuinely helpful. Device deals can make your eyes pop — particularly around the launch of a flagship, where trade-in credits are so high that no smaller brand ever matches them.

I enjoyed those benefits. But the strings attached — lengthy device commitments, specifics about what plans qualify, and bill credits that are doled out over a span of years, to name just a few — often outweighed the savings. Flexibility to shift your ride and save. To some, it turns out the option to pay less month-to-month — without necessarily sticking around until you’ve paid “full price” (the total purchase expense minus what you might have received for a trade-in) — is more valuable than the occasional free coffee or fat trade-in.

Considering a switch? Here’s what to look for

Begin with maps and crowdsourced data. FCC coverage maps, combined with third-party testing from RootMetrics, Opensignal, and Ookla, can help manage your expectations around those ZIP codes. But the ultimate test is a weeklong trial, particularly if you have to drive through known dead zones.

Make sure to confirm the features you put your hands on most often: hotspot caps, Wi‑Fi calling, visual voicemail, international roaming, and smartwatch add-ons. Ask how deprioritization is handled on your plan, or if video streams are limited to a certain resolution.

Lastly, read the fine print. Confirm fees, taxes, autopay rules, and port-out policies. The FCC makes carriers provide number portability in one business day, so in theory you should be able to make a switch very quickly, though mismatched account PINs and billing names often cause delays — get those sorted out before beginning a move.

Five months later, I ended up with predictable costs and the same solid service. The benefits I abandoned haven’t overcome the lower bill and lower friction. If your carrier doesn’t suit you anymore, well, the math is new: prepaid and MVNO options are now robust to such an extent that you can switch for value and yet still stick around for performance.